Gov. Ron DeSantis Vetoes Winter Park Police Request but Allows Mead Garden Project

by Beth Kassab | Jul 3, 2026 | City Commission, Environment, News, Police and Public Safety

Gov. Ron DeSantis Vetoes Winter Park Police Request but Allows Mead Garden Project

Sen. Jason Brodeur said the decisions follow the governor’s preference for regional impact over budget items that he may view as favoring one city

July 3, 2026

By Gabrielle Russon

The city of Winter Park scored an environmental victory and took a public safety hit as Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the new $117.6 billion state budget this week.

DeSantis vetoed $62,500 for Winter Park Police to buy more security barriers to protect crowds at outdoor public events. Meanwhile, $500,000 escaped DeSantis’ veto pen to fund a water clean-up project at Mead Garden that will leave an impact on the greater region’s environment.

“We were disappointed to learn the city’s Police Department Vehicle Threat Mitigation project was included as one of the $1.7 billion projects vetoed by the Governor,” Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said in a statement. “We are, however, grateful for the approval of the Mead Garden Regional Nutrient Reduction grant that remained funded at $500,000. This grant will meaningfully support the city’s efforts to regionally improve water quality throughout the interconnected lake systems of Winter Park and Maitland, benefiting both Orange and Seminole counties.”

State Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, who sponsored both funding requests on the Senate side, elaborated why he thought the Governor vetoed the $62,500.

“I’m disappointed for the community, but I think it speaks to the Governor’s focus on truly regional needs over a request by a single municipality, favoring projects that benefit multiple municipalities, like a watershed project. It’s not always the case but that is what was portrayed to me,” Brodeur said in a statement.

Last year, Winter Park Police previously received $62,500 from the state and bought security barriers — a trailer with eight barriers and a gate — that will protect Watermelon 5K runners and Fourth of July event-goers this weekend.

Winter Park Police Chief Tim Volkerson said he had been hopeful to receive the same amount of money this year to buy more barricades.

“We will continue to seek alternative funding opportunities to acquire equipment to enhance community safety for our public events,” Volkerson said in a statement. “This is a continuous process as technology and the landscape of public safety evolves.

Barriers purchased by Winter Park Police last year help protect pedestrians and businesses along Park Avenue during special events. (Photo courtesy of Winter Park Police)

Winter Park City Commissioner Warren Lindsey shared the same sentiment that he was dismayed about the police funding veto.

“It was a very practical and necessary security protection that would really benefit thousands of citizens, not just Winter Park citizens, but citizens throughout Central Florida that attend different concerts and events around and in Central Park,’ Lindsey said in an interview. “Anything that we can do to enhance their protection is just a win for everybody and it helps provide peace of mind.”

Lindsey also said he was thankful DeSantis did not axe the $500,000 to filter excessive nutrients from Alice’s Pond in Mead Garden.

“It’s really one of our crown jewels of Winter Park,’ Lindsey said of Mead Garden.

He thanked Brodeur and state Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, who had sponsored the funding in a bipartisan effort.

DeSantis vetoed about half of Eskamani’s projects, according to Eskamani, who is often a fierce critic of the governor.

Eskamani said she was grateful the Mead Garden funding survived, calling it a crucial non-partisan issue to protect the environment. She had also been optimistic it would advance because DeSantis himself has campaigned on water quality through his term, she said.

“This is going to be a really important investment,” Eskamani said. “All of our bodies of water are interconnected, and when we’re able to create improvements with one of these major parks, it absolutely will impact the entire community.”

Ahead of the DeSantis vetoes, the Florida TaxWatch criticized state lawmakers for sponsoring $380 million worth of water projects in the state budget which the group dubbed as “budget turkeys” in its annual report. The group said its opposition wasn’t targeting the value of the water projects but the budget process itself since the lawmakers-supported projects circumvented a formal, competitive review.

When asked about Florida TaxWatch’s criticism, Eskamani said, “I definitely think there can always be more transparency in the state budget.”

She added, “With that said, water projects tend to be some of the most important projects with a lot of merit” and argued Florida needs more grants for inland communities to clean up their lakes and rivers.

WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com

To comment or read comments from others, click here →

Winter Park Residents to Pay More for Electricity and Water in Proposed Budget

by Beth Kassab | Jun 23, 2026 | City Commission, Environment, News, Taxes, Utilities

Winter Park Residents to Pay More for Electricity and Water in Proposed Budget

Higher electric bills for Winter Park are likely to be a trend in the coming years, according to projections

June 23, 2026

By Beth Kassab

Winter Park residents and business owners will pay more for water and electricity under budgets approved by the city’s Utilities Advisory Board on Tuesday.

The proposed budgets, which require ultimate approval by the City Commission by the end of the summer, call for the non-fuel portion of electric rates to increase 7.7% beginning at the start of the new financial year in October while water rates will increase 4.46%.

Translated to dollars on utility bills, Winter Park residents who use about 4,000 gallons of water per month pay roughly $54 today and that would go up to about $57 (an estimated $2.49 increase), still below the regional average of just higher than $60.

But for electricity, the price change would put Winter Park above the average for municipal utilities in Florida with fewer than 100,000 customers.

Winter Park would become the fourth most expensive with rates at just under $141 or so per 1,000 kilowatt hours or an increase of about $7. The rate today is just under $134 and is 10th most expensive.

The proposal follows a 4.8% increase residents saw this year over 2025 in their total bills, including a 7.44% increase in the non-fuel portion of the bill.

Higher rates don’t just support the utility, but also help prop up the city’s general fund responsible for paying for police, fire, parks and other essential services. The city collects a 6% franchise fee on electric bills so when rates go up so does the amount of dollars transferred to the general fund. The proposed budget for 2027 shows a $256,000 increase to $3.2 million transferred to the general fund.

In the case of both the city’s water and electric utility the cost of providing services is going up faster than the city’s revenues, Finance Director Wes Hamil told the advisory board.

For about 20 years, the city has had an ordinance that called for water rate increases to mirror the increase allowed by the Florida Public Service Commission, which this year is 2.46%

“However, those rates have not been adequate to cover the cost increases being experienced,” read Hamil’s presentation to the board.

The picture is even more stark on the electric side where projections show a series of rate increases will be needed in the coming years. Higher rates are necessary, according to the documents, to keep up with the rising cost of providing power to the city and projects such as undergrounding electric lines and paying off the debt the city took on to purchase the utility from Duke Energy (then Progress Energy) 20 years ago.

Winter Park has enjoyed years of providing some of the lowest costs in the region.

“It’s a little unrealistic to expect that will always be the case because we’re doing things others aren’t,” Hamil said, pointing to debt from the purchase and undergrounding.

By 2030, there is projected to be a nearly $10 million gap between the amount of revenue brought in by rates and the amount that will be required to run the operation, according to a preliminary cost of service study discussed by the board on Tuesday.

The study projected that rates will need to rise an average of 6.3% for each of the next five years to balance the budget.

The city of Winter Park doesn’t generate it’s own power and relies on contracts from other utilities like OUC and Florida Municipal Power Association.

The OUC contract expires at the end of this year and FMPA ends the following year. Costs are expected to go up as those contracts are renegotiated.

Also up for debate will be the city’s net metering policy or how it pays customers who generate power through their own rooftop solar panels.

More than 200 customers do so in Winter Park and that number has been rising in recent years, according to the presentation.

At issue is whether Winter Park will continue to credit them at what is known as the “retail rate” or the lower “wholesale avoided energy cost” or some combination of the two.

Budget hearings will begin at the City Commission next month.

Update: A previous version of this story has been updated to reflect more exact numbers provided by the city of Winter Park of electric bill averages before and after the proposed rate increase.

WinterParkVoiceEditor@gmail.com

To comment or read comments from others, click here →